Bhopal: Nomination form of Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate for Khajuraho Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya Pradesh Meera Yadav was on Friday rejected after scrutiny, raising the prospects of BJP nominee for the seat getting a walkover in the upcoming polls.
Congress has left the seat to SP under a seat-sharing arrangement within the Opposition’s INDIA bloc.
“The local returning officer rejected the SP candidate’s nomination papers as she has not signed the ‘B form’, and also failed to attach a certified copy of the 2023 Assembly elections voters’ list”, a senior officer of Panna, district under which Khajuraho falls, said.
State BJP president Vishnu Dutt Sharma is seeking re-election from the seat.
The SP announced to move the high court against the ordering, while questioning the decision by the returning officer to reject the nomination form.
“Any discrepancies, if found in the form, could have been rectified by the returning officer during the filing of nomination as per the rule. We will move the high court against the returning officer’s order”, national spokesman of the party Yash Bhartiya told this newspaper.
Mr Bhartiya also dropped hints that the party is weighing the option of extending support to another candidate in the fray in the seat as the last resort.
SP supremo and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav alleged machinations by the BJP in the rejection of the nomination form of his party’s candidate in Khajuraho, and called it ‘murder of democracy in public’.
“It is said that the nomination form was rejected on the ground that there was no signature by the candidate in it. If that is the case, then why did the officer concerned accept the form in the first place”, Mr Yadav questioned in a post on his social media platform ‘X’, formerly Twitter.
He alleged a conspiracy by BJP in the rejection of nomination form.
The SP candidate’s husband Deep Narayan Yadav said that two shortcomings were pointed out in the form for its rejection.
First, the voters’ list attached with the form is not certified or it is old. Second, the signature was supposed to be made in two places, but it was made only in one place, he said.
He claimed that they did not get a certified copy of voters’ list till April three and hence, attached a copy that was available.
Khajuraho is going to LS polls in the second phase polling in Madhya Pradesh on April 26.
